It is all in the mind!

The Man Without a Past (Mies Vailla Menneisyyttä, Finnish; 2002)
Director, Producer, Written: Aki Kaurismäki

We are who we are all because of our senses. The composite of the input of senses that are fed to us, with the processing by our associative neurons and the limbic system, showcase us to the world as the unique individual that we are. Our likes, dislikes, values, beliefs, relationships, moods and personalities are all products of these inputs woven together by memory. The memory of the things that we learn along the way, paves the path to follow and adapt to the social mores that are appropriate for our surroundings. When the faculty of recollection fails, we become zombies that just follow the herd like automata.

Kaurismäki's movies are acquired tastes. The acting appears robotic and the actors look expressionless. Herein lies the quirky sense of humour that hits subtly. Along the way, it is apparent that the director also hits a low blow to the modern capitalistic free economy.

In this second offering of Karrismäki's 'Finland trilogy', the unnamed protagonist, credited as 'M', finds himself lost in Helsinki. After being hit on the head by hooligans while sleeping at a park and robbed of his belongings. He wonders around without knowing his purpose of being there, his past and even his name. With the help of container-dwelling fringe society of town, he tries to get himself together. By no means, it is a walk in the park as his existence seem to depend on his pass - his identity, social security number etcetera.

He just seems to be an unwanted figure existing without a soul to care. It finally changes when he gets embroiled in a bank robbery.

Might still rules

Godless (TV Miniseries, 2017)

How would a Godless country be? Will it be one of lawlessness where the strong would be King where weaker ones would just be spun around in serfdom? Would the primal needs of human see no boundaries and chaos would be the order of the day? With no fear of perceived retribution to their action, would the mighty act with impunity?

Without an agreed code of conduct would the fairer sex, the young, the slow and the handicapped be left behind to be at the mercy of the others? Or would the situation spur them to go yonder and explore beyond their perceived capacity and surprise themselves?

On the other hand, a country holding firm on their theological beliefs also imposes many restrictions on certain quarters of the society which appear to clip their wings from doing things beyond what the real potential lies. The feminine gender is usually suppressed by the most patriarchally centred religions. Certains dogmas drilled by the elders as the gospel truth bars people from exploring new frontiers as they may be deemed too sacrilegious to be questioned by the mere mortals. It is what it is, and it is not for us to ask, they would stay to put a full stop to someone who thinks out of the box.

'Godless' is not the usual western fare. It tells the story of a time in the USA when lawlessness was the rife and gunpowder, and quick draw ruled. Unlike most narration of this genre, here women are prominent. They are not mere second-class citizens, but they run a town and are able to protect themselves from a band of dangerous outlaws who are men.

Time or money?

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Another WhatsApp group with another PSA (public service announcement). A group of guys who are affluent enough to spare their time to reminisce their childhood. They need not see the need to chase their elusive dream anymore as that has become a reality. Everybody is courteous and wish each other well. Each reminds another to mind their time spent. They tell each other that money can be found but sadly any lost time is gone forever. No amount of money can buy time. Conversely, they rationalise that money can be made in no time.

This kind of talk permeated through a dinner party at a relative's house recently. The elder of the clan was keen to remind everyone of the need to stay focused in life. Again, spend time with loved ones, do not forgo time on Earth on chasing for wealth, etcetera. Health is wealth, money cannot buy love, time is precious blah blah.

My mind went overdrive. I was between being 'speaking my piece' and 'holding the peace'; between being a wet blanket and maintaining status quo; between making life easy as possible as most people want and playing devil's advocate. The worse part took the upper hand of me.

I related to them a middle-aged couple for whom I had to stop at a zebra-crossing. They were in shabby clothes, obviously dishevelled, dragging their probably arthritic and neglected lower limbs in a sorry state before the light turned red. I pondered upon their predicament and built my own narrative around the possibility of the present state of affair. It could be far from the truth but it is not wrong for the mind to wonder.

They could be one who thought life is a reward from our good deeds from previous lives for us to savour and indulge. Why worry about tomorrow when we do not have a clue what today may bring us? What if we are not there to enjoy tomorrow? God forbid, what if there is no tomorrow?

So, they enjoy their existence on earth without a care for the future. The trees and every living being survive the day. Mother Nature gives it all to us.

But Mother Nature had indeed had other plans for them. If their lives had been short, things have been just nice. Short and sweet. They were, however, given the curse of longevity. The long years of pains, aches, disappointments, loss of loved one, loss of earning capacity and the brunt of maintaining a body which needed regular maintenance.  The scourge of rejection by the society which no longer considered them productive and the loved one who stopped loving them when they ate into their family budget add on their burden.

For these people, it is not time that they need but money. It is nicer to travel in an air-conditioned chauffeur-driven automobile than to drag their sorry states from point A to point B.

They don't make them like they used to!

V. M. Shamuganathan
(1938-2017)

Just a few months short of completing his eight decades of existence, the soul that who infused part of his genetic material into my DNA sighed his last breath in the early hours of Christmas 2017. At a time when most revellers would be in a state of a stuporous daze after a long Eve dinner, he did his last bodily duties and travelled into the horizon to the Otherside. He died in his sleep, finishing his dharmic obligations.

At a time when serenity was the order of the day in the green-lushed tropical port city of Penang, in 1938, he was a born to first-generation Malaysian parents. His cry was greeted with smiles and waves of laughter of thankful parents and relatives.

Growing through the tumultuous years of the Second World War, the sluggish economics years of the post WW2 era, the poverty of joblessness, the street-smart years of the 50s, through the euphoria of the independent Malaya with 15 other siblings, he had seen it all. The whirring sounds of Japanese planes, the meagre diet of tapioca and rationed low-quality light, nature as his playground, having sacrificed education to feed the hungry mouths of the siblings, the courting style of the late 50s in the newly independent former British colony, the marriage, the loss of the first newborn, the elevation of living standards, the fall from grace and the proud moments brought by the three offspring.

November 1958

The opulence brought with it the lifestyle disease of diabetes at the age of 35 years. The undercurrents of the bug reared its ugly head towards the late part of his life in the form of two significant episodes of hemiplegia which resolved miraculously with a minimal residual handicap. He lost two toes on his right foot after a recalcitrant infection burrowed under the fascia. He fought that valiantly. Grimm Reaper must have been working overtime on his case. The morbidity of disease pounced upon him again. Renegade cells on the bladder wall underwent malignant change. He stood stoically against the cancer cells to bowl them over.

He even came out of his recent bout of fight against with the spreading sepsis with flying colours. He defied the odds, at his age, to have a full recovery and healthier than he had been.

October 1986

December 2017

Feeling victorious after thumping all the obstacles that came his way, he must have lied down to sleep in content, albeit the aches and pain of time, in the early mornings of Christmas Day. The hum of the silence of Yuletide morning must have gently rocked him over to the abyss of no return.

Still smiling from the comfort of lying on the lap of Mother Nature, he left his earthly body. Unlike the time when he was born, when he was crying and the others in the world smiling; he lay in a boxed abode with a perpetual grin whilst the others were wailing.

We are intertwined in a cosmic bonding destinies called genes that interact us with affections indestructible with the passage of time. You are one, and I am one, and we are in this together. We are all a piece of existence. The final rites with its symbolic representation of our brittle and subjective existence on earth affirm our karmic and infinite interaction with another.

The inner diety that seeks its soul mates, in this case, father and son, has completed yet another cycle. The recital of ancient slokas and mantra, rendered with Agni as the witness, hope to call upon the all-encompassing Consciousness, to purify and elevate the soul. May his soul protect the living. May the bliss of Knowledge comfort the loved ones and help to live the legacy that he left behind.

(N.B. Thanks AqS for kind words)

What it takes to lead?

The Prince
Author: Niccolò Machiavelli (1532)

Think Machiavellian politics and what comes to mind are Robert Mugabe and even Dr Mahathir. Many miniseries addicts, especially of 'House of Cards' would recall the Kevin Spacey character of Senator Francis Underwood and his modus operandi which are similar to one propagated by the Master himself, Niccolò Machiavelli.

At a time when altruism and fear of God were the order of the day, Machiavelli's writing must have been a controversial one. It remains a pioneer scripture in the field called political philosophy.

What Machiavelli propagates may not appear just or 'Christian-like', but a leader to stay in power, it must be the divine. A true leader who is convinced is the best one for the nation, whether elected by force or popular demand, has to follow rules laid out by the man himself. He has to remember that he is alone. The only people that he can depend on are general citizens. He must always keep the general public contented and be on your side. He cannot trust the noblemen (in modern terms it would be fellow politicians) as they would be just waiting for an opportune time to grab power. The leader has to ensure that he controls the army and the generals as they found the backbone to safeguard his interest. For soldiers, he has to have people from his own kingdom. They would be more committed to defending the nation. Foreign mercenaries would not do as their loyalty is always suspect.

A good republican society depends on the interplay between the monarchy, the aristocracy and a populist government.

A leader must appear parsimonious, appearing thrifty to defend the coffers with burdening the people. He cannot, however, also profess goodness as it may fail in the end. In order to assure his political survival, a leader is justified to use whatever means deemed essential. A leader must be respected but fear cannot be used as a way to gain respect. Machiavelli's idea of a great leader is one with the regality of a lion and the ruthlessness of a wolf.

An interesting thing mention in the book is Machiavelli's comparison of Moses to that of a politician. He posits that Moses developed his own codes and arms to destroy his enemies.

Over the years, this book has had many critiques but, nevertheless, it remains a reading material to students of political sciences. What do you know, way back between 2BCE and 3BCE, Kautilya, wrote an even more comprehensive and refined treatise on statecraft, economics and military strategy. Kautilya was Emperor Chandragupta Maurya's teacher.

The Best Asian Short Stories 2017

Should some things remain unseen?

The Talwars: Behind closed doors (HBO Asia, Documentary; 2017)

It all started with Fr Martin Luther pinning his thesis on the church door some 500 years ago. He posited that people wanted to know and experience the truth for themselves. They want to read the scriptures in their mother tongue. They do not want the Truth to be exclusive to the few in power. The elitists reiterated that the general public cannot handle the truth. Some things are better left to the experts to interpret.

Fast forward to the Industrial Revolution and Internet era, people's thirst for the Truth had escalated to phenomenal heights. Still, they feel inadequate, devoid of comprehending most of the Universe's secrets. Media practitioners took the bold stop of mongering news right into their living rooms. They even televised real-time combat scenes as it happened as seen during Desert Storm.

This documentary which is a summary of a real-life case that happened in 2008 shows, among other things, how the interference of press may hamper the investigation and steer the progress of a case according to public sentiments.

In a gist, this famous murder of a 13-year-old girl of two dentists parents, Talwars, and their butler, in Nodia, outside Delhi, took the country by storm. It was fuelled partly by the media-seeking parents. Maybe they did it to seek swift apprehension of the perpetrator. Perhaps because we live in a media hungry society, our every action is broadcasted. The investigations and trials went on for almost ten long years. The local police and two teams of the Central Bureau of Investigations were involved.

From the word go, police investigations did not progress smoothly. The crime scene was not cordoned. The press and the curious general public had free access to the flat of the Talwars like it was a funfair. TV viewers almost had a live coverage on the scene on the ground as and when police discovered something.

As the situation became more complicated, the parents were charged with honour killing. The murdered long-time resident butler was accused of rape. It later evolved into a trial by media of the clash of the classes; where the upper middle class hurling baseless accusations against the lowly working class and immigrants to cover shame in the family. There were also accusations of manipulation of the investigation by nepotism and steering of public sentiments via a media frenzy to conserve the good names of the affluent.

In October 2017, the Talwars were acquitted for lack of evidence. The case remains unsolved. Also see the write-up on Bollywood's film based on this murder, (Rahasya)

The documentary begins with Drs. Rajesh and Nupur Talwar on the morning of 16 May 2008, discovering their daughter, Aarushi Talwar, lying dead in her bed, bludgeoned and with her throat cut. Their Nepali servant, Hemraj Banjade, is missing and believed to be the culprit until his bloated and battered body is discovered on the apartment roof terrace. There were seemingly just the four people in the apartment that night and only two of them are still alive. To the police investigation teams leading the inquiry, the parents must be the murderers, but after nine years, three investigations, a trial and appeal, and now an acquittal, nothing is as it seems. Featuring never-before-seen exclusive interviews with Aarushi’s parents, THE TALWARS: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS speaks with those most closely involved in this twisted tale of intrigue, mystery that has turned this double murder into one of India’s most notorious crimes. [HBO]